A %T is <<<<<SLOWED>>>>Follow

Becuase it is neccessary? Ever play a ranger and have that SK or Necro overwrite your snare? Then when the mob runs everyone turns to you and say: "Forgetting to snare?"

To avoid telling the group that I can't be held responible for running mobs if the sk/necro are snaring I made a hot key: %t is snared, have at it.

I also tell the sk/necro that I got snare since mine is manaless and lasts for 14 mins. Just last night I asked the necro if he was snaring over me and when he said yes, I told him of my snare and his reply was : Great! You got snare!.

Now if the sk is tanking, I let him snare since he uses that for aggro purposes. Face it, it's part of the game and most like to use them. Who the hell wants to type %t is INCOMING!!! on every pull when it's so much easier to click a button?

Some people need a hotkey used at the beginning of the group: I am an idiot so watch out for me, I will do by best to wipe the group, fortunately for you, I am not your cleric.

There are times when I consider only one idiot to be a good pickup group (if they aren't the cleric).

I did not used to announce slow, I did figure it was my job, expect it. I have been persuaded that I should announce it. Back to those idiots again (my shammy dps should make up for not slowing, HUH, or I would slow but I'm afk hoping you won't notice)

If battle is frantic you can dispense with some of the 'frills' of the messages. I like a few of the entertaining ones from time to time, but not EVERY PULL. I did group with a certain Bard once who had a 3-line pull message including a voice-tell (like twiztid's warrior). After the third pull a told him he could leave off the voice, to which he said, "I like it, I am keeping it". To which I responded by /ignore AnnoyingBard. What does that tell you? (Actually I just turned the sound off.)

I like (NEED) enchanters to call out mezzes and charms. They do not need to announce every Tash/Slow/Debuff. My chanter might announce "%T has been debuffed and slowed, have at it" when it is time to break mez.

If there are more than one healer, it is nice to have them announce their quick/spot heals (one can assume the MH will be casting the CH).

If I am the MH in a guild group who knows how I operate, I do not announce EVERY CH, unless the %T is getting out of range. If it is players new to me, I do announce them.

I have a few 'pet' socials I reserve for a break. I bring them out occasionally.

/gsay Incoming <<%T>>, donations accepted but not required...

/em tosses droggie doo doo in %T eyes
/pause 10
/gsay %T is now blinded...

When a group starts we set the roles...

Ask me to Heal...I heal.
Ask me to Snare...I snare
Ask me to Nuke...I nuke.

I dont expect messages from Melee's telling me they're doing their job...wheres the trust?

Only messages I put out are:

RUN!
OOM!
ZONE!
WTF!?!? (If I die)
EVAC!

I dont like alot of Battle spam personally.

SO, if you survive the fight...you were healed.
If the Mob doesn't run at 20%...he was snared
If theres Bugs or big booms..Im nuking

"Some people need a hotkey used at the beginning of the group: I am an idiot so watch out for me, I will do by best to wipe the group, fortunately for you, I am not your cleric".

ROFL

Gonna add to this comment.

Everyone needs to have an idea of when that CH will land. Everyone. Assuming that you only need to have a CH message when there's another healer is a horrible mistake. Hybrid tanks can use their magic to extend their lives for a bit if/when needed. Warriors have dicsiplines they can pop if they think that they might not last to the CH. The "poor sap" most certainly has options during combat. We do a lot more then just hit autoattack and mash the taunt key with it comes up you know...

Paladins and Rangers have heal spells that can make that little bit of difference in a tight CH. Necros and SKs have spells/abilities that can take life from mobs, and give HPs to other players (including the tank). Wizards, chanters, and paladins (and clerics, but I'm assuming he's casting the CH) can all stun mobs to keep the MT alive until that CH lands). Any class in the group can potentially grab agro for a few seconds until CH lands and probably live until the MT can grab agro back. You're missing a hell of a lot of group options if you assume that no one can do anything about a CH that will drop too late.

As a paladin, healers that don't have CH messages literally drive me nuts. If all I know is that you haven't healed me in a bit, I can hope and pray that you are casting a CH, but I don't don't *know* that for sure until it lands. 10 seconds is a freaking eternity when you are tanking some of the nastier mobs out there. If you're *not* casting a CH, I need to know right now, not after 10 seconds have gone by and my health is still plummeting, and I'm left to wonder if I need to do something drastic or not. A CH message lets me know that you haven't gone LD if nothing else (nothing sucks quite as bad as waiing for that CH to land only to realize too late that your cleric went LD).


In general messages during combat should be kept short and to the point. They should also be restricted to those things that the group needs to know. Specifically, the group needs to know if you have done or are doing something that they are either waiting for, or which will change their own actions. I don't really need to know if/when you are attempting a spell that can be resisted. If you are the slower, I'll assume you are trying to slow the mob. Same goes for the snarer, and any other debuffs. Let me know when it lands since that will affect what I do, but I don't need to know anything else.

I do *not* need to know when someone assists. I assume you are doing that if you job is to do melee damage. I do *not* need to know when you nuke. Again. I assume that's your job, and I'm not likely to need to change what I'm doing to compensate. There's some argument for dot messages, but I tend to think that the CC'er should make the call and the issue of whether to use dots should be resolved before the fight, not during it.


Keep them short, not because it's hard to read, but because I only have so many lines in my chat box. Even with as much spam as possible filtered off, there are still a number of aspects of the battle that I need to know about. As a paladin, one of my jobs is to interrupt spells. I'm watching for that. Other classes may have other things that they need to watch for as well. What you don't want to do is have players miss something important because a couple people in the group insist on continuously spamming the group with "amusing" chat messages.

Groups go through 3 major phases when fighting a mob. First they engage. Everyone kinda works overtime since the mob's damage output is high until it's been debuffed/slowed. Then they kinda coast while the healers get a handle on the "normal" slowed damage rate and everyone settles in to grind away at the mob. Finally, you'll have a short burst at the end where the mob might be a runner, gater, or enrager.

The initial objective is to get to the second stage as quickly as possible, to "stabilize" the fight. The slow is a huge part of that (the biggest IMO). You have to get a feel for the group you are in and when they group expects to move into "coast" mode on the mob and make sure that they are all aware that the mob's still not slowed before that point. What you don't want to have happen is the healer to switch heal types because he's just in the habit of casting spells in a particular order and end up with a dead tank as a result.

This is totally group dependant. Always sending out that slow message helps. If I know you'll tell me when it's slowed, then it's safe to assume it isn't until you tell me. I wouldn't necessarily have a hotkey for this, but it certainly doesn't hurt if you've gotten 3 or more resists to say something in group really quick like: "/g resisting slow". Only takes a second to type, so shouldn't be a problem. It's enough to remind the entire group that they can't coast just yet, but not too much.

There's no hard and fast rule, since it'll always depend on the group you're with. In most groups, you'll get a feel for the "flow" of the group during each kill. Just make sure to give them enough info to know not to "flow" to the wrong stage of the fight until they're ready...


What you absolutely *don't* want to do is have just a "casting slow on %t" message (presumably hotkeyed with the cast). All I know is that you tried. If you don't also have a "%t is slowed" message for me, then I'll never know if you slowed it or got resisted. You don't want your groups to be in the habit of assuming your slows landed. If you have that message, you still also need one for when it lands, right? So why bother with the casting message? I know you're the slower, right? You're just wasting a hotkey slot (and potentially causing more confusion in the group).

Good call on the fight sequence Gbaji.

Personally I do like a slow resisted message - as I tend to move into DPS and debuff mode after my initial aggro generating spells are channeled. If the beastlord has four slow resists, while dealing out some significant damage with reasonably high aggro weapons, I need to through a little more hate into the fight to keep el mobbo upset at me.

One hotkey I quite like is the 2 stage CH hotkey. Inc in 10 secs, then inc in 5 secs. Not many do like it, but it helps me to judge if I need to kite. And when being one rounded from 40% HP is a possibility I like lots of warning....

Lol, well, you aren't the one who is gonna die if it doesn't land.

I never blame the cleric if I die. Honestly, with this new DoN release that allows you to just like summon your corpse I don't think I'll care about dying. This game has a much more lenient penalty system than most other MMO's (at least after this expansion) so...clerics, be grateful :p.

Of course its always a blow to the war effort if your warrior dies.

I have two short, succint heal messages

CH on %t, 10 seconds

and

Quick Heal on %t

I use the quick heal message to let the caster that is getting beat on know I'm watching and trying to keep them alive.

Of course, for Jophiel, there is always

/ooc My blessed Queen Tunare. Please allow %t to feel my healing powers and become <<<COMPLETLY HEALED>>>!!! See them through the rest of their journeys and allow them to swing fast and hard. May their enemies be vanquished with much swiftness

/shout My blessed Queen Tunare. Please allow %t to feel my healing powers and become <<<COMPLETLY HEALED>>>!!! See them through the rest of their journeys and allow them to swing fast and hard. May their enemies be vanquished with much swiftness

/gsay My blessed Queen Tunare. Please allow %t to feel my healing powers and become <<<COMPLETLY HEALED>>>!!! See them through the rest of their journeys and allow them to swing fast and hard. May their enemies be vanquished with much swiftness

/auction My blessed Queen Tunare. Please allow %t to feel my healing powers and become <<<COMPLETLY HEALED>>>!!! See them through the rest of their journeys and allow them to swing fast and hard. May their enemies be vanquished with much swiftness

/cast 5

TheMightyMagnu wrote:


Yes we are. We're next--immdediately after the MA goes down.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aeydarvon T`Leaves
Level 57 High Elf Cleric
Torv Server

The only reason that I have a LoH button is because we have multiple paladins in the guild. Therefore, we could get up to 3 pallies in a raid, or 2 in a group sometimes.

What's even more embarassing than burning your LoH because the cleric didn't call their CH is burning your LoH right after the other paladin does on the same target.

Twiztid

Personally I keep the messages short.... the wife on the other hand is one of those long message types (cleric). Of course she counterbalances this fact with 50+ different CH messages so you don't see all of them very often. I've been in groups with here where folks have died because of laughing to hard at a few of them.... others have been so racy that they bring group chat to a halt. Personally I've always liked "Viagra and a complete heal INC for %T..... at least then maybe something will stand up to these mobs". She changes most of them regularly keeping a select few..... shes an artist, go figure.